Jamun Ice Candy | Jambul Ice Candy | Black Plum Popsicle

SUMMER has arrived!! Cool down with this Summer with this Jamun Ice Candy / Black Plum Popsicle!

Summer isn't SUMMER, until you've had a brain freeze from all those ice candies. I had a few ones with this Jamun Ice Candy already, not enough though. But hey, summer has just begun. I'm looking at my calendar as I write this and I realise Summer has not "just begun", we are already mid way through it. One more week to go and we are officially mid way in Mango Season. Now that I think, I've barely had mangoes this season. Need to rectify that immediately!!

Anyway back to ice candies. I'm sure all of us have fond memories of buying Rs.1 ice candies from the street vendors who came about pushing their little carts when we were kids, waaaay back in the 80s and 90s (I feel old now :( ). Fun days!! For me summer as a kid meant all play and no work, pigging out on Mangoes, climbing trees to pluck out Guavas, eating loads of ice candies and dreading that report card that was sent home somewhere around this time in April. And of course Rasna!! That concentrated sweet drink that pretty much every house hold made together at the start of summer. I know lots of kids who made ice candies by freezing Rasna in bowls. Each of us had our very own favorite Rasna flavor, I personally loved the Mango. I think I can eat anything that is mango flavored.

Hey, I've been talking of a complete different fruit here. This post is not about Mangoes, not even close to Mangoes. If mangoes is what you are looking for today, you may want to check out these recipes.

Today is all about that purple king of fruits - Jamun or Jambul. While the Mango was termed the king, this extremely healthy wild fruit was very much ignored. Nobody ever spent money to buy them, they were plucked from trees when we all went to our native places and ancestral houses for the summer. The fun part of eating Jamun has always been the purple stain it leaves on your tongue when you eat them. We always had a competition to see whose was the darkest (gross, right?, eh, what can I say, we were kids). It took a long time for people to realise the health benefits of Jamun -the most popular one being the role it plays in controlling diabetes. This increased popularity in recent times has brought the fruit to markets, albeit at an expensive price.

Apart from the health benefits and the purple tongues, there is another reason why I decided to start my ice candy season with a Jamun Ice Candy - it is not commercially available!! There is no popular ice cream brand that actually sells a Jamun Ice Candy, the only place I've ever eaten one is at a small home ice cream parlor in Karkala. I loved it so much, that this season I decided to make them.

Making Ice Candies is a child's play. Literally!! All you need to do is mix sugar, water and the fruit. I blended a part of the fruit into a puree - this is what gives that nice purple color, and I chopped the remaining into small pieces roughly. If you have moulds to make ice candies, then pour the liquid into them and place the wooden stick in the center. But if you (like me) do not have a mould, then just use any small steel glass or paper cups or even ice cube trays to make the ice candies. To get the stick to stand vertically right in the center, just cover the glass with aluminium foil or with plastic cling wrap and in the center of that make a small slit. Insert the stick in the small slit all the way through.

Freeze until completely solid and enjoy your brain freeze.

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Ingredients:

250 gms Jamun / Jambul / Black Plum6 cups Water5-6 Tbsp Sugar

Method:

Deseed all the jamuns.Keep aside a quarter of the jamuns, and blend the rest with a little water until smooth.Roughly chop the jamuns that were kept aside and add it to the puree.Add water to the puree.Add sugar by the spoonful. Stir until sugar dissolves.Depending on the sweetness or sourness of the jamuns, the quantity of sugar required may vary. Pour the ice candy mix into the moulds. Place the ice candy stick in the center. Freeze for 3-4 hours or until frozen completely.If you do not have a popsicle or ice candy or a kulfi mould, you can freeze the ice candy in steel glasses or paper cups. Cover the glass with aluminium foil or plastic wrap. Make a small slit in the center and push the ice candy stick through it.To remove the ice candy or popsicle, just run the mould or the glass under water.